Biden spends another $1 billion to ramp up production of at-home COVID-19 tests
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The Biden administration on Wednesday announced a new $1 billion investment in home coronavirus tests that will quadruple the nation's supply of these rapid tests by early December, officials said.
The administration has secured commitments from test manufacturers to supply up to 200 million home tests per month by December, said Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator.
Last month, the Biden administration announced it would spend nearly $2 billion to purchase about 280 million coronavirus home tests to supply long-term-care facilities, community testing sites, homeless shelters, prisons, jails and other centers that serve vulnerable populations.
On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration authorized ACON Laboratories' Flowflex COVID-19 home test, a move that would add tens of millions of home tests within weeks, an FDA official said.
The $3 billion investment underscores Biden's bet rapid home tests will allow Americans quick and inexpensive access to tests that can deliver results in 15 minutes. The Biden plan previously called for discounted tests at major retailers such as Walmart, Amazon and Kroger, but those retailers’ websites and many stores often have been out of stock in recent weeks.
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In addition to authorizing the new ACON test and investing another $1 billion in tests, Zients said the Quidel Corp. and OraSure Technologies also have committed to rapidly increase production of tests. The combination of new tests, investments and increased production will soon yield tens of millions of tests available for consumers.
The current supply crunch came after Abbott Laboratories and Quidel Corp. cut production this spring when testing demand dropped. As the delta variant drove a surge in testing, the companies had to again increase manufacturing to supply stores.
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The antigen home tests detect proteins found on the surface of the coronavirus, and portable. Laboratory-based PCR tests detect a virus's genetic material and are more sensitive than antigen tests. Lab tests are more expensive and often take one to two days to deliver results.
Lab tests are more sensitive and can detect traces of the virus over a longer period, but advocates of at-home antigen tests say the kits can be deployed more quickly and cheaply and alert someone who is infectious and at risk of passing the virus to others.
Other nations in Europe and Asia have used these tests so residents can frequently test themselves and track the spread of the virus.
Dr. Michael Mina, a Harvard epidemiologist who has advocated broader use of rapid antigen tests, said Biden's announcement is "a great step forward."
Mina said 200 million tests might sound like a robust supply, but manufacturing won't reach that level until the end of this year or early next year.
"It still means that it's less than six tests per year, per American," Mina said. "We really need to figure out how to massively scale up these tests, drive down costs and do it in a time frame that's actually commensurate with the continued problems that are associated with this pandemic."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden to spend another $1 billion on home COVID tests to boost supply
